Site FeedPalimpsest has moved. Please visit our blog in its new location for the most recent posts from Scriptorium.
Palimpsest
On-the-Job Learning
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 — posted by David J. Kelly
Having changed jobs not long ago, I find that my strategies for picking up work-related knowledge are changing. Perhaps it is my sense of survival slowly kicking in. (I really don't want to win a Darwin award if I can help it.) Or perhaps I am waking up to the fact that there is more to the job than the problems currently at hand.In my previous job the deadline pressures meant that I became adept at learning just enough to solve the problems before me and not much more. I became problem focused, and my learning mode was to glean information quickly from a variety of resources to find a solution, implement it, and then sprint to the next problem. From a just-in-time production perspective this was a satisfactory strategy. However, I don't believe it left me well-prepared to identify problems, anticipate problems, and propose proactive solutions.
This is not to say that deadline pressures aren't still an issue and that specific problems don't need to be solved on a daily basis. But I do now find myself becoming aware that part of my job, not only as a Scriptorium employee but as a long-time toiler in the fields of technical communications, is to provide a broader perspective on problems, to anticipate issues, and to provide alternatives that include the benefits of the wide range of tools and knowledge that I have supposedly learned in the meantime.
So instead of skimming and gleaning to find specific solutions that match my current problems, I find that I need to open myself up to new directions, new technologies, new relationships, and new patterns of thinking. And this need brings me to some questions - questions for which I don't have any particular answers, and for which I hope the readers of Palimpsest will be able to contribute their own perspectives.
What are the best methods for learning the general trends of the technical communications industry, quick overviews of specific types of solutions, what works and what doesn't? How much time do you think is reasonable to spend at work doing this kind of open-ended research, and how much do you spend of your own time? Do you have favorite websites (after Palimpsest, of course)? Preferred modes of learning (podcasts vs. RSS feeds vs. blogs vs. forums vs. ???).
Here are some of the resources I currently use:
Nabble - For all things FOP (theopen source XSL:FO processor): http://www.nabble.com/FOP---Users-f353.html
EServer TC Library - Technical Communications articles: http://tc.eserver.org/
Mulberry Lists (specifically for XSLT): http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list/
And, of course, Google.
7:30 AM Permalink |
|
<< Home
